kyxsan on Aurora Gaming in CS2: “The players and coach fully accepted me as captain from day one.”

I’ve always liked to call plays in my own way. I’ve never liked following a pre-set script like a robot. It feels much more natural to watch how a round unfolds and then announce a decision based on the information gathered. This is different from how Aurora Gaming played in the past, and many of the guys still haven’t gotten used to the changes. I think that’s exactly why this roster has had such a slow start, but we’ll definitely get stronger over time.

The difficulties and delays aren’t due to a lack of trust within the team, because the players and the coach fully accepted me as captain from day one. It all comes down to simple misunderstandings in the middle of rounds. For many of the guys, this is a new challenge, since they’ve never played on an international team before. Sometimes people need a little more time to understand my calls, so our communication isn’t at its best right now, and that’s exactly why we’re having problems in matches.

I try to give the players freedom to act, and I think they like it, but it takes some time for them to get used to it. Sometimes it feels like some of the guys just forget about it. Everything goes great in practice, but in an official game, someone communicates less or deliberately waits for instructions from me. We need to learn to strike a balance, since I always have the final say, but I like it when the guys are proactive at the start and gather information that can help them make the right decision.

Maintaining the team atmosphere mostly falls on me and woxic. He likes to energize us, while the rest of us are a bit more laid-back and tend to focus more on the game. So if we need to keep the team’s morale up, that’s something he and I handle.